Marzena Diakun Conductor

Born in in 1981, has made a name for herself across Europe, particularly in France, following a very successful tenure as Assistant Conductor with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from September 2015 to December 2016.

She has since received invitations to conduct the Nordic Chamber Orchestra in Sweden, Göteborg Opera, Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Orquestra Sinfónica do Estado de São Paulo, Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony Orchestra (Canada) and, in France, Orchestre de Poitou-Charentes, Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Orchestre National de Lyon (Berlioz & La Chaise-Dieu festivals) and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France she conducted for a subscription series concert in March 2018. Marzena has also worked with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, Jenaer Philharmoniker, Slovenian National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara.

Marzena is very active in her home country: she has been engaged to conduct the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in , National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, Wroclaw Philharmonic NFM, Krakow Philharmonic, Lodz Philharmonic, Kielce Philharmonic, Silesian Philharmonic and the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestras.

She is regularly contemporary music, and has premiered numerous works with both the Smash Ensemble (Spain) and Berg Orchestra (Czech Republic). In 2016, she gave the Polish premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s opera, Lost Highway, as part of the New Horizons festival in Wroclaw. She will make her debut with Amsterdam-based ensemble, Asko-Schönberg, in April 2019.

Among the soloists Marzena Diakun has worked with, one can list Andreas Staier, Ewa Kupiec, cellists Truls Mørk and Daniel Müller-Schott, singers Camilla Nylund, Klaus Florian Vogt, Catherine Wyn- Rogers, Nathalie Stutzmann, Sabine Devieilhe, Jodie Devos, Jean-François Lapointe.

The conductor received Second Prize at both the Prague Spring Competition for Conductors in 2007 and the Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in 2012, as well as the highest Polish distinction: the National Paszport Polityki award in the category.

Marzena Diakun studied piano before graduating in conducting in Wroclaw in 2010. She furthered her studies at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in in Uros Lajovic’s class, and attended masterclasses with conductors Jerzy Salwarwoski, Marek Tracz as well as Gabriel Chmura, Howard Griffiths, Colin Metters, and , the latter as part of the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Previously, Marzena was Assistant-Conductor to Jerzy Maksymiuk at the Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Berner Symphony Orchestra. In the United States, she was recipient of a Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Festival, and won the Marin Alsop's Taki Concordia Fellowship in 2015. Marzena Diakun is currently a tenured lecturer at the Wroclaw Academy, having led her own conducting class since 2013.

June 2018 Not to be altered without permission. We update our biographies regularly. Please destroy all previous biographical material.